Himba on film

Beverly Andrews on Kin, the film that puts the Himba people in the frame.

As communities throughout Africa struggle to find answers to the problem of wildlife conservation, the South African-born film director, Elaine Proctor, uses this thorny issue as the backdrop to her latest film. Kin explores the contradictions between conservation and tribal rights as well as examines the hope for racial reconciliation in Namibia today.

The film tells the story of Anna, a young wildlife conservationist, who lives in a remote region of Namibia. Together with her brother Marius, Anna fights to save a small herd of elephants that drinks nightly from their well. For both Anna and Marius, it is the elephants who are their kin rather then the baffled Himba people whose settlement borders their farm.

Into Anna's isolated existence, steps Stone, an African-American working briefly in the country. Combined with the arrest of a local Himba man for poaching, whom most locals believe to be innocent, Anna's life suddenly is plunged into a sea of conflicting loyalties - a position from which she finds it almost impossible to extract any answers.

Elaine Proctor's inspiration for the story comes from her early childhood spent travelling into the Namibian desert. Her discovery of a communitybased conservation scheme there served as the framework for this fascinating story - a story through which Proctor explores the conflicts that arise when a very colonial style of conservation is set in place against the wishes of the indigenous community.

As Proctor states: "The catalyst for [Anna IS] shift is the experience of falling in love with a stranger who comes from the outside and helps her recognise everything."

Anna learns to accept as kin not only the wild elephants who roam her land but also the local people who for years have been her neighbours. Kin can, in many ways, be seen as a metaphor for process of reconciliation - a process that the Namibia is still slowly and painfully working its way through.

The production has brought together an international cast, including the Australian actress Miranda Otto, who stars as Anna; the American star Isaiah Washington as Stone; and the South African rock musician Chris Chameleon as Anna's conservative brother Marius. All the actors bring a passion and dignity to their roles.

But Elaine Proctor wanted the film to also have the feel of a documentary, and to this end she used many local people, including members of the Himba tribe. It is their portrayal of themselves, facing issues that the Himba are currently having, which gives Kin its sense of authenticity.

Although appearing on film was a new experience for them, the Himba proved to be wise and tough negotiators. "The film is not romantic about the Himba, but it is respectful," says Proctor. "They renegotiated with us before every take because they knew that we needed them."

And they have a good sense of humour. When they became used to the repetitive nature of filming, they began to say, `here comes One More' every time the director appeared.

The Himba people are a semi-nomadic community that lives in the northwest of Namibia. They are a strong, dignified people who have elected to live in one of the world's most hostile regions. Himba men routinely walk miles in temperatures of over 40 degrees in search of water and grazing land for their livestock.

Says Proctor: "I remember when I first saw a Himba family, I was driving on a dust road and I was very young and they came over the horizon. They had such incredible dignity! They are people who have never been oppressed, they went to the driest place on earth to get away from everybody else and that gives their sense of themselves and their culture a greater power. They are also the most extraordinarily beautiful people who are deeply aware of their beauty."

Anna's growing understanding and respect for the Himba people is perhaps the film's strongest theme. She learns to work with the Himba to resolve the pressing issue of the elephant's survival.

Proctor, who both wrote and directed Kin, began her filmmaking career by making anti apartheid documentaries in South Africa perhaps as a direct result of her father's political activism. He served as the pathologist for the Biko family after Steve Biko's murder in police detention.

Proctor's early work included the political documentaries Forward to the People's Republic, The Sun Also Rises and Sharpeville Spirit.

Proctor moved to England to attend the National Film and Television School and gradually shifted her focus to fictionalised stories. Her first feature, Palsea, went on to win the Golden Dragon at the Krakow Film Festival. And her subsequent graduation film, On The Wire, received the British Film Institute's Sutherland Trophy for the most original and imaginative first film in 1990.

Although Kin is by American standards a relatively low budget film, it was necessary to have several financial backers. The main ones were Bard Entertainments, British Screen and the Arts Council of England, with Bard Entertainments also acting as distributor.